514 NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



back, and, according to the custom of the country, riding astride ; one 

 of them had holsters and pistols before her, the other a hanger by her 

 side, slung with a military belt over her shoulder ; they had with them 

 only a little boy, who rode behind one of them, and hence I concluded 

 that they were inhabitants of the neighbourhood, and had travelled 

 only a short distance. They were well dressed, appeared to belong to 

 the class of Planters or Miners, and excited among the people no symp- 

 toms of surprize. 



The temperature of Villa Rica and its neighbourhood is low ; in 

 the morning, during my stay, the thermometer varied little from 60°. ; at 

 noon, it was generally 64°. or 65°. in the shade. There is a considerable 

 degree of moisture in the climate ; the mornings were in common foggy, 

 which sometimes turned to a drizzling rain, coming uniformly from the 

 North, over the brow of the hill. About ten o'clock, the atmosphere 

 cleared and brightened, and the sun became scorching until four; but 

 there is something ungenial in the heat, which parches the skin, without 

 materially warming the air. The evenings were clear and beautiful, and 

 the stars shone brightly at night, as during a frost in England, unobscured 

 by a prevailing glow of light, which rendered distant objects uncommonly 

 visible. 



In the Gardens, many of which have a soil of extraordinary fertility 

 and are regularly laid out, as well as among the herbage of the fields, 

 appeared a singular intermixture of plants and flowers, which seemed to 

 indicate the united influence of the torrid and temperate climes. The 

 Aloe had suffered from cold, and on the hills trees had been strip- 

 ped of their leaves, but were putting out fresh buds. All besides 

 appeared, in October, to be still winter ; owing in part, it may be, to the 

 imusual dryness of the season. 



In the neighbourhood of the town, I shot a Merlu, a bird in shape 

 and size resembling the Woodpecker. The head, neck, back, and tail, 

 w^ere a greenish brown ; the breast, belly, wing-joints, and the part near 

 the root of the tail, were of a beautifully bright yellow ; the legs slender ; 

 the toes long, three forward and one behind. — The Bem-te-vi, another 



